Videotrace: Rapid interactive scene modelling from video

Here you can see a demonstration of Videotrace, a system for interactively generating realistic 3D models of objects from video, developed at the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies. It’s not as magical as I initially expected, but it is pretty cool. The tool seems just easy enough to use, and the output just cute enough. It won’t put good 3D artists out of business, but it will disrupt some markets. I can imagine something like this showing up as a nice family-friendly Mac tool within a year or so (or whenever there is a nice family-friendly place to use 3D models made from video in).